


Hot Toddies and the Princess Bride

by malome78



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Cold, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 06:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5616325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malome78/pseuds/malome78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian gets sick and Emma comes over and tries to help him feel better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hot Toddies and the Princess Bride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hookedladyswan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=hookedladyswan).



It had been three days since Emma had last seen or heard from Killian. She was getting aggravated by the time she finally decided to call him on the mobile phone she had provided him.

 

“Jowenz...” Killian answered in an adenoidal voice.

 

“Um, hey it’s Emma, I haven’t heard from you if a few days and I wanted to make sure you were ok”.

 

“I’m fine, just come down with a slight maladity. Didn’t want to get anyone there sick lest you pass it onto Neal.”

 

“Oh, you want me to come over and bring you something” Emma asked uncertainly.

 

“No, I just want to sleep. We’ll do something when I’m all mended. Was there anything else?” Killian asked sounding tired and annoyed. Emma felt guilty. She only called him when she was feeling insecure. If she had called sooner she could have tried to help him as soon as he was sick.

 

“No, I’m sorry.”Emma said sheepishly, feeling even more like crap. She’d called Killian when he really just needed to rest. “Uh, have you tried putting rubbing menthol on the soles of your feet?” She found herself saying.

 

“Uh, rubbing some man’s what on my where?” Killian shrieked, sounding horrified.

 

“Menthol… uh, like… a vaporub?” Emma rushed. “Uh, Vicks?”She paused, as Killian sneezed loudly again. “You can rub it on your feet- it helps”.

 

“Would anything with menthol work, or just Victor’s rubbing cream”, sounding about as amused as a man with a heavy sinus infection could.

 

“Probably though, I mean, it’s the menthol part that does the trick.”

Emma heard Killian get up with a groan through the phone and start rummaging through something. “You can try tea with honey too.”

 

Killian sighed again, “Are you going to give me every old wives remedy you know? Next you’re going to tell me to tie an onion around my head right?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Onions ward of evil spirits that cause you to be sick, the tavern owner in the Enchanted Forest told me that once. It also keeps wounds from getting infected”.

 

“I bet they smelt amazing”

 

“Well, honestly since most of the poor didn’t use any form of deodorant or bathe regularly, onions weren’t really that bad.”

 

“No wonder you had focused on exorcism rather than hygiene as proper self care.”

 

“Have you ever sailed on a ship with numerous men without running water for months on end?”

 

“Then don’t talk about odors” Killian laughed, and then fell victim to another coughing fit, followed by the line going dead.

 

Sighing Emma put on her coat and ran to the general store, the pharmacy, the liquor store, and finally Granny’s Diner. While their relationship was still a new and tentative thing  she wanted it to have the chance to grow. If Killian died, having succumbed to his cold, that couldn’t happen. It didn’t take Emma long to reach the Jolly Rodger. Killian was already at the door when Emma walked down the stairs to his stateroom. He looked like a caterpillar, he was wrapped up in a down comforter from head to toe with only his bleary, bloodshot eyes and red nose sticking out.

 

“Emma, I wished you didn’t ignore my galient attempts to suffer by myself while protecting you from this plague.”

 

“It’s okay, I’ve had a cold before. I picked you up some soup, and pretty much everything they had over the counter, and some amaretto to make hot toddies with.” She said, holding up the bag in her hand. “Uh, just go sit down and you can take a look.”

 

Killian nodded wearily and slumped back down onto the edge of his bed. Emma put the bags down on the bedside table, moving the debris- it was littered with used tissues and empty mugs, and other things she didn’t think about as she cleaned them all up.

 

“Don’t touch those!” Killian protested, and Emma shrugged at him.

He looked… sick. Like, sweaty and gross and far too attractive for his own good. His hair greasy and his nose was red and swollen, and his dark blue eyes were watery and puffy, and… oh, he was… he was lovely. She really needed to give herself a little space to breathe too, because lusting after a guy who had snot on his chin wasn’t what Emma had signed up for.

 

“I’m just going to go heat up this soup.” She could hear Killian cough and sneeze, sounding about as pathetic as a grown man could, as she picked up a glass, a couple of spoons and walked back to the bed. Killian was sitting up and he was reading the leaflet inside the ‘extra strength cold and flu’ pills that she had brought.

 

“You think these’ll work?”

 

“Yeah, but don’t you dare dry swallow those.” she scolded, pointedly handing over the glass. “It’s bad for your throat.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”Emma nodded. “Take those, and eat the soup. I got dumplings too, not sure if you like em.”

 

Killian glanced at the bag and nodded. “I like anything with calories in it.” He mumbled, before knocking the pills back and taking a liberal swig of the water. “You didn’t have to do this, you know.” He pointed out, waving Emma to sit down. “It hurts me to look up.” He said, when Emma sat down.

 

Killian shot her a rather grateful look before picking up the bag that contained the soup and dumplings. “You gonna stay and have something to eat?”

 

“You know, you should rest.”

 

“But I’m so bored, please don’t make me stay in this bed all by myself any longer.” Killian whined.

 

“A little while ago you were telling me I shouldn’t have came.”

 

“Well that was when I was being noble”.

 

“What do you expect me to do in this bed with you?” She asked and then winced at how suggestive that sounded.

 

Killian gave her a bleary eyed grin and chuckled. “Well I have no TV on my ship, so I usually pass the hours away when I can’t sleep reading. I haven’t honestly felt up to it.”

 

“I will stay in bed and read to you if you swear you will eat all that soup.” Emma stated skeptically.

 

“On my honor, but I do believe you mentioned something about hot toddies?

 

Emma acted nonplussed as she got up and prepared Killian and herself a hot toddy using honey, lemon, some of Killian’s tea bags and rum. She finished with the amaretto liqueur and fresh ground cinnamon.

 

“Here you go, drink this and relax. I will read to you until you fall asleep.” Emma said, handing Killian a cup of the tea mixture.

 

“This is heavenly Emma, I have some books under the table, you can pick out whatever you want to read..”

 

Emma cut Killian off with a smile as she removed a book from her bag of supplies. “ I figured you would want some entertainment tonight, so I packed the required reading for when someone is sick.”

 

Killian settled down into his pillow giving Emma a soft pillow. He was touched that she would think of everything he needed like this. Emma curled up in his arm and placed her head on his shoulder and covered them both with the warm soft blanket. She smiled as she began reading.

 

“The year that Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette...”

 

Emma continued reading from her copy of “The Princess Bride” until Killian fell asleep. Not long after she drifted off to sleep in Killian's arms.


End file.
